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San Francisco Day 3 Part One: The City and Across the Golden Gate Bridge

Cable Car

Cable Car

Sometimes instead of wildlife I feel the need to list the things I ate in one day because the combination amuses me. When you are constantly on the go that which you eat can get rather interesting. These are listed in order of consumption: A granola/strawberry yogurt cup, an apricot oat bar, one banana, a caramel covered marshmallow, a fortune cookie, a sesame mung bean ball, a turkey and avocado sandwich, a peanut Lara bar, and a hot dog. I think my stomach is still trying to recover.

Bread Alligator with turtles on top, Boudin Bakery

Making the bread

This day Traveler Five and I headed out to further explore the city via an antique car. We wandered the alleys of Chinatown and checked out one of the Fortune cookie factories, gave a buck to an Erhu player, and stopped in for a mid-morning second breakfast of dim sum. We had a sweet sesame mung bean ball. I forgot that the gelatinous rice flour roll surrounding the sweet mung bean filling is a substance that is almost impossible to chew and swallow without choking to death if you aren't careful. It took a while to get that thing down. Seriously. But it was tasty.

Then we headed up to the Pacific Heights neighborhood to check out Victorian architecture. A day of walking around this area is like getting a master course in Victorian design. Some of these houses are spectacular. Don't get fooled into the whole having to see the Painted Ladies thing. While they are beautiful there are much more spectacular examples of Victorian houses within a easy wandering distance. There are also lots of homes owned or formerly owned by lots of Very Famous People.

Love these colors

In the Haight

Jimi and the Haight-Ashbury street signs

More art in the Haight

Then we headed down into the Haight. This is a dream come true for me. My soul has been drawing me to this place since I could remember. I swear I must have been here in the late 1960's in a former life. It was one of those places that I get there and its just like coming home even though I've never been there before. And I got to stand on the corner of Haight-Ashbury. It was like I could hear Janis, Jimi, Jerry and Jefferson Airplane playing through every cell of my body right down to the DNA level.

Janis, Jimi, and Jerry

A bird, a rabbit, a monkey, and an elephant on a door...sounds like an opening to a bad joke. Love the artwork though.

Love the artwork on this building

Detail of building above

Also, we drove by George Lucas's Industrial Light and Magic. I almost ran in there and asked them to hire me but I didn't. It was a close thing though. Seriously, George, you and I need to talk about story structure and character motivation....

Standing on the Sausolito side of the Golden Gate bridge, about to walk over it. Click for larger pic.

After fortifying ourselves with sandwiches from Boudin Bakery we took a taxi over the Golden Gate Bridge to walk back over it. The bridge spans the Golden Gate, the stretch of water between the bay and the Pacific Ocean. When completed in 1937 it was the longest suspension bridge in the world.

Walking towards San Francisco

View from middle of the bridge. Click for larger photo.

Cable

The San Francisco side of the bridge disappearing in fog

You can make a round trip walk over the bridge but we had time issues and needed to catch a ferry to Alcatraz later (see next post) so we hoofed it one way over the bridge. This is an amazing walk and it being free, it is hands down one of the best things to do in any city I've ever been in. The views from the bridge are intense. I liked how we started out in sunshine on the Sausalito side and half the bridge was hidden by fog on the San Francisco side. The fog just hung there in a straight line cutting the span in half.

Crissy Field view, click for larger photo

The Golden Gate bridge, walking down toward Crissy Field

Walking toward Crissy Field

Once back on the San Francisco side of the bridge we headed down the trail, skirting the Presidio and walked along the coast of the bay to Crissy Field and then over to the Palace of Fine Arts. The walk along the bay is amazing with pelicans flying in formation over the strange gray-green plants on the tiny sand dunes. From here we watched fingers of fog falling down the slopes across the bay obscuring Sausalito from view.

San Francisco Day 3 Part One: The City and Across the Golden Gate Bridge

Cable Car

Cable Car

Sometimes instead of wildlife I feel the need to list the things I ate in one day because the combination amuses me. When you are constantly on the go that which you eat can get rather interesting. These are listed in order of consumption: A granola/strawberry yogurt cup, an apricot oat bar, one banana, a caramel covered marshmallow, a fortune cookie, a sesame mung bean ball, a turkey and avocado sandwich, a peanut Lara bar, and a hot dog. I think my stomach is still trying to recover.

Bread Alligator with turtles on top, Boudin Bakery

Making the bread

This day Traveler Five and I headed out to further explore the city via an antique car. We wandered the alleys of Chinatown and checked out one of the Fortune cookie factories, gave a buck to an Erhu player, and stopped in for a mid-morning second breakfast of dim sum. We had a sweet sesame mung bean ball. I forgot that the gelatinous rice flour roll surrounding the sweet mung bean filling is a substance that is almost impossible to chew and swallow without choking to death if you aren't careful. It took a while to get that thing down. Seriously. But it was tasty.

Then we headed up to the Pacific Heights neighborhood to check out Victorian architecture. A day of walking around this area is like getting a master course in Victorian design. Some of these houses are spectacular. Don't get fooled into the whole having to see the Painted Ladies thing. While they are beautiful there are much more spectacular examples of Victorian houses within a easy wandering distance. There are also lots of homes owned or formerly owned by lots of Very Famous People.

Love these colors

In the Haight

Jimi and the Haight-Ashbury street signs

More art in the Haight

Then we headed down into the Haight. This is a dream come true for me. My soul has been drawing me to this place since I could remember. I swear I must have been here in the late 1960's in a former life. It was one of those places that I get there and its just like coming home even though I've never been there before. And I got to stand on the corner of Haight-Ashbury. It was like I could hear Janis, Jimi, Jerry and Jefferson Airplane playing through every cell of my body right down to the DNA level.

Janis, Jimi, and Jerry

A bird, a rabbit, a monkey, and an elephant on a door...sounds like an opening to a bad joke. Love the artwork though.

Love the artwork on this building

Detail of building above

Also, we drove by George Lucas's Industrial Light and Magic. I almost ran in there and asked them to hire me but I didn't. It was a close thing though. Seriously, George, you and I need to talk about story structure and character motivation....

Standing on the Sausolito side of the Golden Gate bridge, about to walk over it. Click for larger pic.

After fortifying ourselves with sandwiches from Boudin Bakery we took a taxi over the Golden Gate Bridge to walk back over it. The bridge spans the Golden Gate, the stretch of water between the bay and the Pacific Ocean. When completed in 1937 it was the longest suspension bridge in the world.

Walking towards San Francisco

View from middle of the bridge. Click for larger photo.

Cable

The San Francisco side of the bridge disappearing in fog

You can make a round trip walk over the bridge but we had time issues and needed to catch a ferry to Alcatraz later (see next post) so we hoofed it one way over the bridge. This is an amazing walk and it being free, it is hands down one of the best things to do in any city I've ever been in. The views from the bridge are intense. I liked how we started out in sunshine on the Sausalito side and half the bridge was hidden by fog on the San Francisco side. The fog just hung there in a straight line cutting the span in half.

Crissy Field view, click for larger photo

The Golden Gate bridge, walking down toward Crissy Field

Walking toward Crissy Field

Once back on the San Francisco side of the bridge we headed down the trail, skirting the Presidio and walked along the coast of the bay to Crissy Field and then over to the Palace of Fine Arts. The walk along the bay is amazing with pelicans flying in formation over the strange gray-green plants on the tiny sand dunes. From here we watched fingers of fog falling down the slopes across the bay obscuring Sausalito from view.